Another stroke of sunshine slapped me in the back of my head, ringing fatigue and dizziness through my skull. Sweat beads bloomed across my face, while thinner films hugged the rest of my body, making my clothes fabric body stickers. This was another day, reeking with regret, tarnished by procrastination. Could I help it? This happens when you become a visionary among your peers, a pedestal cracking at the base – except the base was buried in the ground, where no one can see it.

I buried my brain with biology yesterday, Latin words dancing in my brain to the noisome rhythm of metabolic processes. Aerobic respiration, photosynthesis, Calvin cycle, the works. The least I could do was curl up in my bed and watch Grey's Anatomy until my eyes dried out. Too bad that's all I did yesterday. That's all I want to do any day. The burden of maintaining the exceptional person I built sucked.Could I help it?

Speaking of today, this was not the day for all these people to be out on the college's vast green lawn, languishing secretly in the despicable heat of late summer. Trifold displays, trinkets, and watery popsicles decorated the tables, students advertising their clubs and organizations to rope in freshmen. I was among the students who volunteered because no one else would do it. People can be selfish twats, so I'm stuck out here while my homework and emails beckoned for me. That's embarrassing. I could feel my professors breathing down my throat, or my contacts scrutinizing me from behind screens.And who's idea was it to have a stupid exposition for clubs and organizations out here for a whole hour?

In my quest to have a honest-to-goodness, money-well-spent college life, I felt lost. Frustration baked into my brain, burning my thoughts in a furnace of poor decisions and late night sleep. I needed something to level myself. To take away the stress for even just a little moment – and escape. Reaching into my pocket, I withdrew a warm, defeated piece of fruit-flavored candy, misshapen and covered by an indigo wrapper. It was supposed to be hard and meant for chewing. Instead, it devolved into a soft, gum-like monstrosity.

Unfortunately, this candy reject was my saving grace. As I unwrapped the candy, I thought about how brilliant I was, forgetting my water bottle in the comfort of my fine, air-conditioned room. Maybe I had heat exhaustion, hence my whining. Who knows.

I released the miserable chew from its wrapper and slipped the sticky mess in my mouth with one suck off the thumb. Huh, blueberry.

Rockets of tangy juices flooded my mouth, washing away my insecurities. My worries and woes melted from the sweet expanse taking over my mind. A blueberry candy did this to me? I looked up to the angry blue skies. It flickered, like a dying light bulb. Bright pink shimmers overlapped with the blue, the clouds like fluffy puffs of cotton candy. My mouth dropped open, the chew an amorphous blob heaving from my teeth's abuse.

I glanced around, the crappy trifolds shaped like erect folds of chocolate, advertising familiar brands. Dry heat still beat down on the event, and the participants weresweating thick drops of artificial juices. Raspberry? Strawberry? I couldn't tell. The blueberry chew commanded my attention as it folded into a smaller mold.

My skin raced with excitement, a sudden need to scratch it. Whether it was anxiety or my skin burning from the heat, I scratched. My fingernails sunk in deep, pulling and stretching taffy disguised with hair follicles, to see the messy licorice intertwined and clinging to rigid bone. It didn't hurt. And it felt good. Free from expectations,I tried poking the moist licorice.All I felt was a small bounce, like I was pressing skin. I was.

The chew eroded into a flat disk on my tongue. Sweetness tingled my tongue with tantalizing needle stabs. I blinked several times. The licorice faded, replaced by my scarlet skin. I didn't want the world.The damn blue washed back into the skies, the heat unchanged, unrelenting. Everything morphed from its luscious transformations back into their dour forms. The chew left this world.

I cried, my tears too warm to feel liberating. That moment of escape smashed the pedestal for a moment, re-erected when I came back. I felt abandoned. That horrible piece of candy left me to suffer in this sinister sunlight. The world waited.